Dispensing units are widely utilized to sell products to consumers. Dispensing units include any device for holding products from which a consumer can take products for purchase. Vending machines are a common type of dispensing unit and are used to sell a wide range of products, including soft drinks and food. Vending machines generally operate as stand-alone retail devices and are stocked with products by route drivers who also collect money from the vending machines.
A dispensing unit generally includes one or more bins that hold product for sale to the consuming public. These bins might hold any number of products. Some dispensing units, such as vending machines, operate alone to collect money from the consumer and dispense product from a selected bin, such as a rack of soft drinks in a convenience store.
Managing dispensing units to ensure proper function, maintain adequate product supply and earn a profit presents a number of problems. These problems are magnified where the dispensing units operate as stand-alone units because the dispensing units are unsupervised except during servicing. One problem associated with dispensing units is maintaining an adequate supply of product in the dispensing unit. Additional problems include mechanical failures, vandalism and other events causing the dispensing units to operate improperly. Further problems are the equipment and labor costs involved in servicing dispensing units, and reconciliation of the money collected by route drivers with the quantity of product sold from the dispensing units. Because of these and other problems, the task of managing dispensing units is quite difficult.
Several conventional systems provide remote monitoring of sensors. One conventional system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,292 The system described in this patent allows vending machines to generate and transmit an alarm signal to a central computer complex indicating an illegal entry into a vending machine or an improper dispensing of change. This system also indicates when a "sold-out" or "jam" condition exists. The system disclosed in this patent reports data on a prescheduled call-in basis except for the several alarm conditions.
A second conventional system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,237. The system of this patent monitors remote sensors for reading a meter. This system utilizes a remote unit attached to a meter that contacts a central computer at a preselected time or in the event of an alarm condition to transmit information relevant to reading the meter.
These conventional remote monitoring systems are limited. Changes in sensed conditions occurring between preselected or prescheduled intervals are not addressed. Further, there is no capability to transfer information from a central facility to a remote unit, there is insufficient information gathered, and there is underutilization of information.
A need has arisen for a system for managing multiple dispensing units that more efficiently acquires and utilizes information to address problems associated with managing dispensing units.